


If the world was ending you’d come over, right?

by DeyaAmaya



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mystery, Neil Josten as Nathaniel Wesninski, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28219731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeyaAmaya/pseuds/DeyaAmaya
Summary: There's a mirror in Neil and Andrew's room.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 4
Kudos: 94
Collections: AFTG Exchange Winter 2020





	If the world was ending you’d come over, right?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my aftgexchange gift for Rainb0w0bsidian, but I realized I messed up right before posting. I picked Andreil to write and latched onto the prompt: AU or CC angsty fluff with or without sex where they end up happy at the end. As I usually do, I weaved some magic in it. I completely overlooked that you didn’t want to receive Magic/fantasy AU.  
> I'm not sure how disappointed you’d be with the fic. Please drop me a message on tumblr (andreil-minyasten) or a comment here to let me know. I'll try my best to whip up another fic without magic/fantasy as soon as possible.  
> Again, I apologise for runing your gift 😭

**December 10, 2021**

There's a mirror in Neil and Andrew's room. 

It's a pretty thing, some sort of brushed antique metal with scalloped edges, delicate curlicues appealing to Andrew's inner-goth. But there's something…

"Whatcha doin'?"

Andrew's heart leaps to his throat, and something must've shown on his face, because Neil laughs at him. 

"Stop looking at that ugly thing and come with me, work's about to start," Neil coaxes, reaching out to tug at Andrew's wrist and turning to leave their shared dorm. He's looking away, and misses Andrew's flinch at the touch.

And this is the other thing…

It's been a little over a year since Andrew came to the Rubato Specialised Observatory in the middle of nowhere. No kidding, it literally was in the middle of nowhere. No civilization in sight, so the light pollution was minimal, and their research went that much smoother.

Andrew came here on contract for a couple years only, was hoping to get far enough away from his family, his past, to… find himself, maybe. He'd followed his best friend on a whim, for lack of a better idea. 

Instead, what he found was Nathaniel Wesninski. A mousy, scrawny assshole of a roommate, barely taller than himself. They'd butted heads more often than not, from things as petty as using each other's towel to messing up the calculation they were working on. Andrew couldn’t stand him. Andrew wanted to kiss the stupid frown off that stupid face.

When did all that change, Andrew had no clue. He'd gradually (grudgingly) left a place for Nathaniel in his life, and the boy had tentatively stepped in.

"Neil, call me Neil," he'd prompted one night when they were sitting on top of an out of order server, smoke drifting up and obscuring his eyes. "I don’t like the name Nathaniel."

And so he was Neil. Still Andrew's roommate, still a scrawny, mousy asshole. But he looked at Andrew like he understood, told Andrew stories that didn’t match up, didn’t make sense, and yet Andrew held the idiot down when he had a nightmare, shaking himself to sleep under Andrew's weight. And yet, he was the one calling Andrew away from the monsters in his dreams, even knowing how Andrew lashed out upon waking. Neil never, ever touched Andrew without asking first. 

Their first few kisses were tentative, breathless, and then desperate. Neil kissed like every little brush of lips was a gift to be cherished, his eyes impossibly drak and swimming with something Andrew was too afraid to name. 

And if the longing in his chest was unbearable, if the thought of releasing Neil from the circle of his own arms every morning seemed excruciating… then it was nobody's business but his own.

A few weeks ago, it had gone bad, so bad, that Andrew skipped out a couple hours before his shift was officially over, just to corner Neil in the communal shower for a taste. 

After…..  _ after _ , Neil was sobbing. Not the kind that was brought on by a heady orgasm, but a series of heartwrenching, shuddering sobs that made Andrew's gut twist, despite Neil's reassurance that he was  _ fine _ . 

He shakes himself out of his reverie. Following Neil, he's arrived at the lab. With a smile thrown over his shoulder, Neil moves over to his desk on the other side of the hall, and Andrew settles in his. 

There's something wrong. As much as it hurts to admit, he suspects there's something fishy going on with Neil, and there's probably only one person who can help him about this.

* * *

"Don't you dare light up in front of me," Kevin grumbles right as Andrew slips into the surveillance center. "I want none of that second-hand smoke."

Any other day Andrew would've lit a cigarette simply out of spite, but today he refrains. That alone clues Kevin in that something was up.

"Neil's acting weird," Andrew gets to the point. "You noticed, didn’t you?"

Kevin's face falls. "I thought I was imagining it, or maybe he was absent-minded. He's stopped using French around me."

Andrew absorbs the information in silence. He knew. But to have someone else confirm it…

"What do you think happened?" Kevin asked, stiff in his swivel chair. "A long lost evil twin, like yours?"

Andrew scoffs. "No. He's the same. Physically, at least. He still has that mole at the back of his right ear. Twins usually don’t match up in so much detail." Andrew carefully refrained from mentioning that Neil didn’t smell the same anymore. His pleasantly smoky scent was replaced by some generic cologne. 

"Amnesia, then?"

Andrew frowns. "Possible. He seems to remember some stuff, though. There's just weird holes in his memory," He says. With a sigh, he drops into one of the spare chairs. "He keeps saying 'please', like it doesn’t mean anything." 

Kevin's sharp intake of breath is loud in the empty room. The air seems still, stale. Andrew itches for a cigarette.

"I gave him a key," Andrew says. "The key to my house back in Columbia. He used to wear it on a chain." 

"Used to?" Kevin prodded.

"He seems to have forgotten about it. When I asked, he just looked blank."

Neither of them know what to say after that. Kevin is frowning. Andrew thinks back, back, back. 

A morning. Neil rose early everyday for his morning run, but that day he rose earlier. Their room was still enveloped in darkness.

Andrew had grumbled, trying to keep Neil in the bed a little longer. He'd nuzzled at his neck, arms going tighter around a skinny waist. 

"Don't go," Andrew had muttered. Neil had gone still. 

"I have to," he said after a pause, untangling himself from Andrew's lax hold. Andrew would've protested, but sleep was tugging him away. The last thing he remembered was a soft "Thank you".

The next day, Neil hadn’t been himself. And continued to be not himself. 

"There must be an explanation," Kevin tells him, bringing Andrew's focus back to the present. There's a crease between his brows as he browses something on his range of monitors. "But, something doesn’t add up. Neil didn’t go running that day. He didn’t leave the room all morning."

"What are you talking about? Of course he did. I woke up at 7 and went to get breakfast because he was still out. When I came back, he was changing out of the sweaty clothes," Andrew reiterates. He remembered everything. How stupid of Kevin to contradict him. 

"Then, did he climb down the fifth floor window? Because None of my cameras caught him going out. Or in," Kevin says with confidence. 

Disbelief prompts Andrew to sit down next to him and recheck the footage. After half an hour he is forced to admit that yes, Neil hadn’t gone out of the room that morning.

Where had he been? In that tiny room there wasn’t any place to hide. There's a couple of tiny chest of drawers stuffed with their clothes, the set of bunk beds and-

"The mirror," Andrew breathes. 

"I've always hated that goddam mirror," Kevin grouses. "Who even uses mirrors that short? I can't even see my collar when I stand in front of it!"

"The glass is exactly as tall as Neil," Andrew said, staring at Kevin. Then he shakes himself.

"What am I saying? We're scientists, we shouldn’t-"

" _ You _ 're a scientist , I'm a glorified bodyguard," Kevin interjects. "I'm half Irish, remember? I'm pretty sure that mirror is some kinda fae bullshit." 

"Kevin, you’re the head of security of a Government facility. You practically invented the security system of this compound. You're as much of a scientist as I am."

"Fine," Kevin sighs. "So we're two scientists. Let's go and do science."

* * *

"It's just a normal mirror," Kevin whines, half an hour later. "It's not even radioactive! Even telling it my full name didn’t do anything!"

"Quiet," Andrew frowns. "There's a hair stuck in the glass."

"Like, under the frame?" 

"No, in the glass."

A single strand of brown hair sticks out from the glass, at about Andrew's eyes level. With shaking fingers, he pinches the strand, tugging lightly.

The mirror's surface ripples. Gently, it keeps rippling. The hair strand comes loose in Andrew's hand.

"Do you think he's in there?" Kevin asks, barely audible.

Andrew closes his eyes and steps into the mirror. Faintly, he can hear Kevin scrambling to follow.

Inside (inside!), the space is wide, like the foyer of a modest apartment. There's some clutter, and at a glance Andrew can tell they're a mix of modern and antique. But then his attention is snatched by raised voices coming from the inner chamber. 

"Give it to me, you monster!" 

Andrew's heart stutters.  _ Neil? _

"No! You took everything, Nathaniel! Just let me have the key." 

This voice is louder, but it also sounds like Neil. Kevin gasps behind him, but Andrew is already wrenching open the door. 

There's two people wrestling on the floor. Just as Andrew enters, Neil jumps up and away from… Neil.

Andrew is dimly aware of Kevin cursing loudly. But his attention is fixed on the two identical men in front of him.

One of them springs to action and steps forward. "Andrew!" he beams. "Thank god you’re here! This monster," - he points at the other Neil- "this monster stole my key!"

The  _ monster _ is, evidently, holding the key in his fist, pressed to his chest, the silver chain dangling. 

"It's mine," he whispers. "I don’t want anything else, just let me have this."

"No!" barks the other Neil, grabbing onto Andrew's arm. "Andrew! Tell him to give it back!"

Something clicks.

He's been such. an. idiot. 

Andrew twists his arm out of Neil's grip and makes a fist in his collar, shoving him against the nearest wall. The powder blue wall ripples, but Andrew ignores it.

"You're not Neil, are you,  _ Nathaniel _ ?" he snarls.

The man in front of him is white with fear, shaking like a leaf. Andrew can't stand such a look in  _ that _ face. He looks away in disgust, shoving him at Kevin.

There's more important things that need his focus.

Neil watches Andrew's feet as he approaches, still not meeting his eyes. Andrew gently wraps his fingers over the fist holding the key. With the other hand, he tilts Neil's face up.

"Don't take it, don’t take it from me, don’t take it," Neil's eyes are full to the brim, his voice thin.

"It's yours," Andrew tells him. "Come back out with me, it's freezing in here."

Neil stares at him.

"Didn’t you hear him?" he points at Nathaniel. "He's right, I'm a monster. I'm a demon, Andrew!" he nearly shouts. Between one blink and another, his appearance changes. 

Fiery curls tumble over glowing blue eyes, on a face full of freckles and a generous collection of scars. A pair of horns peek out of his curls, right above his ears.

"You see, Nathaniel here is in witness protection," Neil continues in an unnaturally calm tone. "Even all the way out here, he was still paranoid. I was just chilling in my mirror, but he kept babbling all night and day. I offered to switch places with him, for a year."

A year, he says. Another piece clicks.

"I'm a few centuries old, so is my brain. It was child's play to fit into the role of a researcher. I thought I'd enjoy being a human for a year. I thought it would get boring. But just as I left my mirror, you showed up." 

His eyes are locked with Andrew's. Andrew tries to find regret, remorse, any hint of it. He finds none. 

"I knew I had to get back," Neil says. "I knew I had to give you up to Nathaniel. I just wanted something of yours," his fist tightens. Andrew feared he was going to cut himself on the key's teeth. 

"See, I told you! He's the monster, I'm the real one!" Nathaniel pipes up from somewhere behind him and Andrew growls, his temper flaring.

"Kevin, take out the trash already," he demands.

"Alright, don’t come back out without Neil," Kevin quips, and proceeds to drag Nathaniel away.

Andrew turned his attention back to Neil, his blue eyes now uncertain. 

"You're not mad at me?" Neil asks, almost shy.

"Shut up," Andrew says. "Come back out with me."

"I-"

"Are you trapped here?"

"Not really, no," Neil sighs. "I just have to stay within a certain distance of the mirror. That's not the point. Andrew, I'm a mirror demon. Nathaniel was right to call me a-"

Andrew's palm presses over Neil's lips.

"I don’t care," he tells Neil. "I came in here looking for you, and since you’re not trapped here, you’re coming back with me."

He dropped his hand from Neil's mouth only to wrap it around his neck and tug him closer.

"Come back out. Come back and go on terribly early runs, then bring me fresh baked croissants from the canteen. Come back and argue with me over that equation I botched up last month. Come back and sleep next to me, steal my blankets, whatever. Just come back," he squeezes the back of Neil's neck for emphasis. "We're scientists, we'll figure something out."

By now, his voice has gone from coaxing to nearly pleading, and perhaps it’s in his expression too, because Neil is staring at him with wide eyes. Then, he smiles. 

Something heavy slips away from Andrew's chest. Right there. That smile. Nathaniel could never.

"Okay," Neil says, glowing with happiness. "I'll come out with you." 

* * *

**December 20, 2022**

There's a mirror in Neil and Andrew's room. 

Andrew still thinks it’s pretty. Neil doesn’t live in it anymore, he only goes in when he needs something. An old sweater, a grimoire, whatever.

Andrew watches Neil put on Christmas lights around the frame and gives up trying to pretend he himself is getting any work done. His arms snake around Neil's middle, and Neil meets his eyes in the mirror.

He's kept his fiery appearance, just the horns are absent. Andrew watches him with dark eyes. 

"You don’t have any evil twins lurking in that mirror, right?"

Neil laughs at his absurdity. But it’s a valid question. Andrew feels vaguely offended.

(It's possible that he's a tiny bit tipsy.)

"No, no evil twins," Neil assures him. "Just me, your Neil."

Hmm _. His Neil _ .

Andrew can live with that. 

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of the mirror came from the Chinese series I watched last month, named Guardian. There's also a little idea borrowed from the movia "Thelma".


End file.
